Plain Truth – La pure vérité by/par Jodi Picoult September 2, 2009

The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: circumstantial evidence suggests that eighteen-year-old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn’s mother, took the child’s life. When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to defend Katie, two cultures collide – and for the first time in her high profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own. Delving deep inside the world of those who live “plain”, Ellie must find a way to reach Katie on her terms. And as she unravels a tangled murder case, Ellie also looks deep within – to confront her own fears and desires when a man from her past re-enters her life. (Source: Washington Square Press).

This story, inspired by the many cases of young women giving birth in secret after concealing their pregnancies and then abandoning or possibly even harming the baby, has an even more intriguing twist, as it is set in an Amish context. Various psychological aspects are touched in this poignant story, to the point where the reader no longer knows what to believe. Denial, anguish, being different and yet belonging, freedom, love, the realisation that things have gone too far and the fear that there is no way out, all this is described and told with talent, compassion and a true understanding of the Amish people. The ups and downs of the trial are set against the many changes in the life of the attorney who must defend the young girl who is accused of killing her own baby.